(Nanowerk News) Digital Surf - provider of surface imaging and metrology software solutions for a wide range of microscopes and profilometers powered by its Mountains Technology - announced a new generation of Mountains 7 software that is compatible with scanning electron microscopes (SEM’s) and multi-spectral (Raman) instruments and also brings numerous new features and enhancements for all other supported instrument families. After previews at trade shows and conferences in the last part of 2012 - including EMC 2012 (European Microscopy Congress) in Manchester, England and the MRS Fall Exhibit in Boston, USA - Mountains 7 will be released in the first quarter of 2013.

The new Mountains 7 software represents significantly extended instrument compatibility. Compatibility with scanning profilometers and form measuring systems was assured in the first wave of Mountains software that began in 1996. Compatibility with scanning probe microscopes, confocal microscopes and optical interferometric microscopes came in a second wave that began in 2004. Now, in the third wave, Mountains 7 SEM software can be used to reconstruct 3D surfaces from pairs or quadruplets of SEM images, and Mountains 7 multi-spectral Raman software can be used to visualize and analyze Raman spectra and hyperspectral cubes.

Mountains 7 not only provides an expanded set of surface analysis solutions dedicated to specific instrument types, it is also an ideal unique solution for facilities with a broad range of instruments of different types. Moreover, thanks to its compatibility with an expanded range of instruments, it is a powerful tool for correlating images and topography in mixed microscopy environments. For example it can be used to co-localize images obtained by scanning electron or fluorescence microscopy with topography data obtained by confocal microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy or atomic force microscopy.

“Mountains 7 is a major milestone for Digital Surf, marking our entry into the electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy software markets,” stated François Blateyron, COO of Digital Surf. “We are looking forward to feedback from our partners and from contacts at forthcoming trade shows and conferences before the official release of Mountains 7 in Q1 2013.”